Rhondda Heritage Park

Rhondda Heritage Park

So this post is all about a trip I took with three friends and a baby to Rhondda Heritage Park in Trehafod. Now some of you may very well know where that is and some of you may be scratching your head! Well, It is a place in the Welsh Valleys. It is home to the now closed Lewis Merthyr Colliery. Access to the site is free, you can look around the museums and access the grounds free of charge. However there is usually a small fee for a tour of the site and travel into the pit to see where the miners used to work. This tour is led by an Ex-Miner. I can’t speak for all of them but the guy that took us on ours was nice answered questions and was really chipper! There’s a cost you say! Well yes usually, however through the month of September there is ‘Open Doors’. Open doors are occur when the Welsh Tourism board and sites listed on it participate in making culture and tourism more readily available. They do this by not charging tourists on certain days through the month of September. I only found this out two days before we went and booked myself straight on the tour. The tour must be booked in advanced, I dunno, risk assessments or whatever. Apparently though this is something that occurs each September so hopefully people can take advantage of this in future years! Wahoo! It is worth noting that these places can be visited year round *nudge nudge, wink wink!*. So basically what I am saying is, ‘Don’t think you have to wait until September 2016, 17, 18 or WHENEVER to check out some Welsh sites! Don’t be a cheap skate all the time!’ This is something that I am working on myself!

The Tour lasted 40 minutes and we chilled out in the coffee shop before having a look around the museum. There was an art exhibition there, I missed it though! I am completely oblivious sometimes! There is an eerie set up of old Welsh houses, with information on how dangerous mining as an occupation was and perhaps still is. We met with our friendly guide and he spoke about the different roles within the mines and walked us round the colliery explain the different machines, many of which were now rusty due to no longer being a functioning colliery.

Children and adults alike were able to ask questions before we descended in to the mine itself! I didn’t know that children worked in the mines from the age of 6, that they went to school for 2 hours a day on a Sunday, hence Sunday school! I also didn’t know that they used dynamite to release coal from the pits. I didn’t know that they tried to resuscitate the canaries that fell off their perches once exposed to gas! When the tour had finished we were even allowed to take a lump of coal home with us! So Santa, I know its only September, but based on this years antics, there’s no need to stop at mine! I already have my lump of coal thanks! Lol.

I know you just came for the images, and it had nothing to do with my cheeky musings! So let me just cut to the chase and share those images with you!

Like what you see? Then definitely get your butt to Wales and have a proper butchers! If you already live in Wales, make a packed Lunch and get down there for a nice day out… You know you want to!

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